New Portland Wire Bridge, Suspension bridge in New Portland, Maine.
The New Portland Wire Bridge is a 188-foot-long, 12-foot-wide suspension bridge over the Carrabassett River, just upstream of Lemon Stream's mouth. Its 25-foot towers are built of 12-inch wooden beams covered in wooden shingles and rest on rough-quarried granite abutments. Main steel cables about 4 inches in diameter connect to the wooden plank deck via 204 steel girders, with cable ends anchored by concrete and granite blocks weighing an estimated 30 short tons.
Construction history is debated locally. One account credits Colonel F. B. Morse, who had cables hauled from Hallowell by oxen and saw the bridge dubbed "Morse's Fool Bridge"; the town history instead names David Eider and Captain Charles Clark, builders in 1864–66. It is one of four 19th-century suspension bridges in Maine and was listed on the National Register in 1970.
The bridge's nickname, "Morse's Fool Bridge", comes from the traditional account that Colonel F. B. Morse built it in 1840–42 and had its cables hauled from Hallowell by oxen. The town's official history instead credits David Eider and Captain Charles Clark with building it in 1864–66. Visitors still drive across the single lane on Wire Bridge Road.
The bridge is located on Wire Bridge Road and designed for single-lane traffic with a three-ton weight limit per crossing. Visitors should approach slowly since the passage is narrow and the structure is historic.
The bridge features 204 steel girders connecting the main cables to the wooden plank deck, an unusually complex solution for its era. This number of girders shows the careful engineering thought required to distribute the load evenly across the span.
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